Partners
by dragonmay111
Summary: James Potter, was a difficult person to understand. He pranked and bullied people for his amusement when he was bored, but he also would take the punishment of someone else when he thought they didn't deserve it. To Diana Harron he was the boy she was stuck with as a partner for the biggest potions project of her entire year. However, he seems to have more to him than she thought.
1. Chapter 1

Diana Harron was sorted into Hufflepuff, the most overlooked house in Hogwarts, which described Diana's entire social standing. She was the nice girl. The quiet one. The one no one ever noticed, unless they were asking for a favor. She'd resigned herself to the life she was appointed once joining her house. But honestly, she was content to stay on the sidelines, if it meant making her loved ones happy and better off, she would do anything. Diana had waist length blonde hair and greenish blue eyes. She was short, only standing at 5'3. But she had a nice stockier figure with nice curves from exercising. the blonde was pale with a small spray of freckles across her face and a small mole laying underneath the left side of her bottom lip.

Potions was an enjoyable to her, it reminded her of doing a mad experiment from what she'd seen on a muggle tele show from when she was younger, and cooking. Cooking and baking was something she absolutely adored, it gave her a chance to relax and do something creative. However, there were downsides to potions, perfectionism is one that Diana struggled with most. There were many rules and limitations that it was hard for her to find that enjoyment she found with cooking.

it was a couple weeks into her sixth year and no one had been fully assigned partners for the year yet, but all the students knew it was coming. Slughorn always had 'ideas' behind each of the partners he made and every student never knew what to expect. Except for Lily Evens and Severus Snape, they were the star students of Slughorn, the prime examples of how to preform well in his class. He always gave them special treatment and a better pick of Potions partners. Diana detested favoritisms, but there was nothing she could do about it but complain.

"Alright children, I've made a list of partners for you all for the next project. It will be a long and extensive one and it will be a very special project, I've decided to add 50 house points and a chance to exempt the extensive follow up essay to the top pair. It is a once in a student time chance, so I want everyone's best efforts put towards this assignment," Professor Slughorn pulled out a list and began reading of the names of each of the pairings.

Turning to her previous partner, Amy Duke, a fellow Hufflepuff, Diana sighed pulling all of her items back into her bag." I just hope whoever my partner is, will pull their weight," the blonde girl rolled her eyes.

"Ms Harron and Mr Potter are partners," Slughorn said before droning on through the list.

James Potter was someone Diana had class with before many times, been the victim of many of his pranks, and yet had never carried on a full conversation with. There's a first time for anything. The blonde girl glanced back at Amy, who had smiled in encouragement, before moving to join James, who had not even bothered to look up at her as she approached.

Before Diana even had the chance to sit down, James had cut off Slughorn's reading." Professor, I think I'd be able to preform much better on this project if Evans was my partner instead," the bespectacled boy grinned over at Lily, who grimaced.

"I promise you mister Potter, I took into consideration your lack of abilities with potions when choosing your partner. Now please don't interrupt me again," Slughorn cut off any more arguments from James.

Feeling a little offended, Diana avoided looking at the boy, afraid he was gonna blame her for the arrangement. Scanning the requirements and outlines for what the project entailed six times, gave the blonde peace of mind. She assured herself that once the boy accepted that they were stuck as partners, he would be less rude about it. Hopefully.

Once Slughorn was finished with partnering off everyone, he gave them the rest of class to acquaint themselves to each other and began brainstorming. The project was for them to choose from a list of less common difficult potions and to research, write a page about the uses, effects, and ingredients, and to successfully create the potion itself. They had four months to complete it.

Mustering up her courage, she turned to the bespectacled boy, who was pouting after being made fun of by his friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who had managed to be partners. He scanned the paper quietly, occasionally pushing his glasses up when the fell down his nose.

"Hi, I'm Diana Harron, we've had a couple classes together before but I doubt you remember me. I'm sorry that you couldn't get partnered with Lily, I hope that we can still work well together," she offered her hand as a chance to see how he'd react.

"I'm James, but I'm pretty sure you know who I am. It's only one project, I've got the rest of the year to get to work with my darling Evans," he shook her hand no longer frowning but not smiling either. It was a start.

The two spent the rest of the class going over some of the potions and which ones they'd look into on picking. It was very formal and Diana felt her shoulders droop when class ended. James had booked it to meet up with his friends and Diana went off to find Nico, her best friend since 1st year.

Nico was from Gryffindor and was one of the few who sat and talked with her on the train ride to Hogwarts in her first year. He was a year above her. He had light brown hair and chocolate eyes with tan skin. He was her tall person. Every short person had a tall person for when they couldn't reach things.

Smiling as she spotted him walking towards their next class, she jogged to catch up to him. The blonde kicked him in the back of the legs, bursting into laughter as his knees bent and he almost fell over. He turned around and glared at her when he was able to stand up straight again.

"Your greetings could use some improvements Diane," he rolled his eyes but pulled her into his side.

"You have no right to complain you tree, I clearly remember last year you had said I looked like I gained weight after summer break," she stuck out her tongue at the boy.

"Ah right, I remember that now. You didn't speak to me for three days, which I was very impressed with by how long you lasted for," he teased ruffling her hair.

"It was you're fault. Anyway, guess who I'm stuck working with on my potions project?" The blonde said remembering her last class.

"Who?"

"James Potter."


	2. Chapter 2

A/n: Sorry guys about the big hold up! Every time I tried to get this chapter written, I didn't like it and just rewrote the whole thing. Thank you again for reading and if you notice any errors or have recommendations let me know!

Nico had given Diana a lay down about dealing with James and his friends." Don't do anything stupid that could piss them off because they aren't always the most kind to their enemies," blah blah blah. He made it out to be a big deal, like it was her fault she ended up being partners with the boy.

She wasn't trying to do anything but get good marks, so she told Nico to chill. He was always like acting like a big brother when it came to protecting the girl from others. However, she was a big girl and could handle a teenage boy. She hoped.

The rest of the day carried on uneventful, but Diana was fine with that. She could still never get over the sheer euphoria of being able to magic. Even when the day was dull for others, and sometimes it could, she just couldn't seem to feel cynical.

The next day however, specifically Potions, her normal routine was once again thrown out. She'd arrived on time and reluctantly departed from Amy, to sit next to James again.

He had turned to give her a grin and a quick hello before turning back to converse with his friends. Class still had a few more minutes before beginning and the small amount of people Diana felt comfortable enough to talk to, were on the other side of the room. She was stuck with being silent.

'Come on girl, it's not that hard to handle being still and quiet,' the blonde girl internally groaned at her own thoughts.

The class dragged on until they were finally able to resume working on their potions. Pulling out a list that Diana had worked on narrowing down, she once again mentally prepared herself for attempting to get James to help her out.

"Alright James, I comprised a narrowed list of a a few potions I thought would be the best to choose from," the blonde girl meekly tried to get the boys attention.

James had sighed and turned to the blonde girl. Her nose was pinched up and she had a hesitant smile on her face, she looked quite funny to the boy, who couldn't help the grin that spread on his face. She had made a similar one the day before, he assumed she was nervous. He didn't remember her from many of their apparently shared classes, but from this class, he knew she wasn't a very outgoing person, only ever talking to one of her fellow housemates.

'Well, she'll at least keep me entertained with her face!'

"Alright Harron, lets see what you got," the bespectacled boy took the paper and read it over quickly." It doesn't really matter to me which one we do, so you pick."

James handed it back to Diana, who sighed. Hopefully this wasn't a foreshadowing of how the rest of the project was gonna go. She really didn't want to have to do it all by herself.

"Actually hand that back over." James grabbed the paper out of her hands. Inconspicuously, the girl examined her hand for paper cuts.

Jeez, he didn't need to snatch it from her hand!

Looking back at James, she noticed he circled 'Amortentia.' It is known as the strongest love potion in the world, and smells unique depending on the person.

Putting two and two together, it clicked in Diana's brain. Oh boy.

"Are you sure that you want to make this one? We could do another like the Shrinking potion," Diana tried to sway the boy to choose another one.

"No way, that's too easy! Plus, if I have some of Amortentia, than I know Evans will come to her senses about her feelings for me." James' grin was so innocent and boyish, yet so stupid at the same time, that Diana didn't have it in her to crush his bubble.

"Okay then. I guess we can do it. We should next start working on the essay." The blonde girl tried to see how he would react to her bringing up the essay portion.

"We can do that after class. We should meet up in the library around 6 o'clock, sound good?"

"I guess so. I might get there a little earlier to grab some reference materials."

"Well Harron, I'd say this calls for a well earned break," James pulled out two oranges." Fancy an orange?"

"Oh thank you." Confused but not one to deny food, she began to peel the fruit.

Having to be careful not to get caught by Slughorn, the girl was content to eat the citrus fruit and to watch the bespectacled boy. His knee was constantly bouncing, and he kept trying to get one of the other boys' attention. His energy was making her anxious, but it was interesting to watch him twitch and squirm in his chair. It reminded her of her younger brother, he was only four but he would constantly be off somewhere in the yard trying to fly his sisters broomstick.

"Don't you have quidditch tryouts tonight?" Diana questioned, remembering that Nico has said something about tryouts being this week.

"We did, however, Ravenclaw traded off days with us because the captain had something going on Thursday. So now they have today and we have Thursday." James' face brightened at the mention of the sport.

"Ah. And you play seeker right?"

"Yes! Do you play?" James became even more excited.

"Oh no, I don't. As much as I love flying, athletics have never been my strong suit. I do love to watch though, Amy and I go to all the games here and have even been able to go to a few of the Montrose Magpies and the Holly Head Harpies games. They are my favorite teams!" Diana

"The Holly Head Harpies are good, however, my vote is always for the Bellycastle Bats. They almost always rank in the top three in Europe, and have some of the best uniforms I've seen," James' smile practically fell off his face.

Not many of the girls he knows at his age are into quidditch like he is, so it was definitely a surprise to see the meek girl interested in it too. It seems that this project is turning out better and better. First a chance to get Lily to fall for his charms, and now a new quidditch friend!

The two teens continued conversing about quidditch until the end of class, and Diana was almost sad to leave. She didn't always feel as unreserved with someone she just met, especially not someone she's been warned to stay clear of. James Potter was not as she first assumed. But, she couldn't say she was upset by that.

Well she'll see what happens when it's 6o'clock.


End file.
